Religion

The Ten Commandments

What happened to the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written?

Chapter 32 of the book of Exodus explains that while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the Israelites who were waiting below grew impatient and soon prevailed upon Aaron to “make us a god who will be our leader; as for the man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.” And so Aaron did what the people wanted; he proceeded to collect gold jewelry from the Israelites and then fashioned the jewelry into a golden calf. When Moses came down the mountain, he saw the people rejoicing and dancing before the calf. Enraged, Moses threw the two tablets (which were inscribed on both sides) to the ground, smashing them. Later, the Bible explains (in Exodus 34:1–4) that God instructed Moses to carve new stone tablets “like the other ones,” which he did. These tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant, as God had told Moses.